Legacy of the Dark Sage

An oppressive aura enveloped the whole Somuli plane as time seemed to have come to a standstill. However, most inhabitants did not seem to have noticed it. Only those inside the defensive arrays that Kyran enhanced felt the change.

Although they were not affected by the standstill, they still felt the massive pressure coming from that oppressive aura, and their insides constricted in pain.

Only a selected few withstood the pressure, including Kyran's Servants, marked Knights, True Void, the Abbot, and Ames.

One reason the former two could withstand the pressure was due to their being affected by the Void's nature, which seemed to counter a Time-related spell itself. As for the latter three, rather their ability to withstand the pressure because of their nature or strength— True Void being a sentient born from a magic weapon with Void nature, the Abbot being the most powerful mage in Somuli and had almost completed his ascension to Sovereignty, and Ames who did not belong to the Lower Realm— they were inside an isolated independent space that still belonged to Somuli yet being hidden to the rest, similar to the temporary world Kyran created for the Spirits. This space was created to ensure that the Abbot's ascension would not be felt and discovered by the outsiders.

Speaking of outsiders, there were also a few who managed to withstand the pressure even without any defensive arrays to protect them simply because they were Sovereigns. Nevertheless, that was all they could do— withstand the pressure but were helpless to do anything else.

Kyran's expression turned cold as he watched Flos's and Obstruction's severed heads, stopping in midair. But it was not only their heads. Kyran's movements were also suspended in midair.

"Two threads with foreordained charges has been forcefully severed… error to future codex has been detected… applying error fix…"

The voice, which seemed to belong to three different women, resounded once more. After which, another wave of deafening boom covered the plane.

Uneven squared lines filled the sky as golden ancient runes rained from above. But these runes did not touch the ground. After arriving at a certain height, they dissipated in the air.

Kyran gritted his teeth. Just by the few words spoken by those mysterious women, he gleaned that they were trying to stop what he had done.

From this, he more or less guessed the identity of those women.

Fates.

Kyran had his suspicions about the Fates' association with Time magic since they represented the Past, Present, and Future. But he did not expect that they would truly utilize Time magic.

Did they not say there could only be one person who possessed one type of Ancient magic?

Just as this question crossed Kyran's mind, a sardonic voice answered in his head, sounding much like his own.

You possessed two types of Ancient magic. Draconic magic is not even solely available to you. There are real Dragons, like Ames, in the Higher Realm who can wield it better than you. Don't even get started with Void magic. You bestowed its nature to your Servants, which allowed them to utilize it in combination with their innate magic. There's also Neah and Layla, both able to use Soul magic when only one of them bears its core. Why would it be any different for Time magic? Not to mention, the ones using it are called Fates. They can not be considered an average being. At most, they may be similar to the Dragons, who can use draconic magic.

While the reasoning that flashed through his mind was sound, it did not alleviate Kyran's mood. As a matter of fact, it only got worse.

With the Fates' appearance, they were practically saying that they could not allow Kyran to sever Flos's and Obstruction's foreordained charges.

The meaning of those definitely did not sit well with Kyran. From what he could understand from it, Flos and Obstruction seemed to have a very important charge or— for a more easy-to-understand term— a mission that would happen in the future. However, with Kyran killing them at this moment, that future would never happen.

That future not happening was something the Fates could not allow, which was why they had personally come to 'apply a fix' to the situation.

Though all of these thoughts seemed a lot to process, they only flashed through Kyran's mind in a matter of a few seconds. It did not take up a lot of time at all.

Because of this, the moment Flos and Obstruction's severed heads started to move back into their bodies, Kyran had already been rousing his magic.

Kyran remembered his talk with Stella— the First Time Keeper. She told him that some of their scenarios did not happen as they had planned because he seemed to divert from their 'expectations.' Though that was not the exact word Stella had used then, it pretty much summarized what she meant.

From that, it could be said that Kyran had the ability to ignore someone's plot and create his own scenario.

Caelan did not tell him this, but Kyran had a feeling that it might have something to do with Void's theory of creation.

For short, Kyran could create his own path and definitely his own scenario. At least, that was his belief. He had no way to prove it yet.

Until now.

Kyran would not allow Flos and Obstruction's threads to be reconnected. If it did, and they did not die from his swords, once time flowed correctly again, Kyran would lose his momentum and fall to the ground, allowing them to escape. When that happened, they would take Cyneah and the others with them.

They would likely kill those they did not need or allow the Macabre Glacier to absorb their souls and turn them into undead soldiers.

This could very well have happened. While Cyneah had control over the Macabre Glacier at the moment, there was a possibility that the latter's sentient would take the opportunity of the former's moment of weakness to take full control and agree to Flos's arrangements.

When this happened, then the foreordained charges that Flos and Obstruction likely meant to do was to every other Sovereign faction in the Lower Realm and win the War of the Sovereigns.

Kyran's whole body crackled as he roused his Void magic energy up to the full extent of his capacity.

Sizzle! Sizzle!

The air around him started to sizzle as the influence of Void started to show its might against Time's nature.

As it did, purple Void Runes appeared from the sky, blending in with the gold Ancient Runes.

Frankly, Kyran did not understand what those golden runes meant and only focused on creating Void runes that would affect whatever it was they were doing. Fortunately, the Void runes seemed to possess a mind of their own and did the rest by themselves, affecting the golden Ancient Runes according to Kyran's will.

The moment the golden Ancient Runes got affected by the Void runes, changes appeared in their arrangement. The Ancient Runes shifted around, a run disappearing and being replaced by the Void Rune, which would then turn gold.

While this was happening, Flos's and Obstruction's heads were quite near the half-mark before they returned to their severed bodies.

"An interference has been detected...

"Locating interference...

"Failure to locate... Re-attempting...

"Failed...

"Starting emergency protocol... Inputting Emergency Codex...."

Red-colored Ancient Runes started to pour down from above. However, these runes did not overlap with the golden Ancient Runes, but they surrounded them, seemingly trying to remove the Void Runes that mingled with them.

However, the red runes failed to move the Void Runes.

"Warning... unable to input Emergency Codex... Interference cannot be located..."

The intermingling voices of the Fates resounded throughout the plane. While they were speaking, Kyran's influence grew as his whole body resembled a huge dark purple sword that crackled with dark purple bolts of lightning.

Without even doing anything else, Kyran's aura alone tore through the Fates' error-fixing attempt, resulting in Flos's and Obstruction's severed heads unable to return to their bodies.

FOOOM!

Another deafening boom resounded in the whole plane as the unevenly squared lines in the sky started to crack open.

Six cracks appeared, resembling the shape of an eye. However, rather than revealing white scleras and colored irises, there was only darkness.

But in the middle of that darkness, a blinding light resembling searchlights fell upon Kyran.

After this, the oppressive aura that weighed on Somuli multiplied by a dozen times.

The defensive arrays that Kyran enhanced immediately cracked under the increased pressure from the aura. Those inside also felt it, and some officers who had pretty low levels keeled over.

Even the isolated independent space finally sensed the pressure, which then alerted Ames.

Ames's closed eyes snapped open as she looked up. She was unable to see what was happening outside, but she recognized the aura of the Fates. Her beautiful face immediately soured as she contemplated leaving the independent space and trying to alleviate the pressure coming from them.

But even as the thought crossed her mind, another aura exploded that shocked even her.

Outside, Kyran remained undeterred as he released the Shaiha's concealment and unleashed his aura.